Twitter throttles API calls

Applications that integrate with Twitter via the API are facing tougher restrictions on the amount of times they can poll the service, causing some of them to fall over, reports Geek.com.

Back in June, Twitter told developers that applications would only be allowed to request data from its servers 175 times per hour, down from 350. Developers are now reporting this limit has been lowered again, to around 75 API calls per hour.

A large number of third-party applications, as well as those developed or published by Twitter itself, use the API to pull down updates - including new tweets - from the Twitter servers. In some cases, developers may need to update their Twitter-based applications to ensure they function correctly under the new restrictions.

BMC Software, which made its name streamlining corporate data centres, is now riding one of the technology industry's biggest waves: cloud computing, writes The Wall Street Journal.

Over the past 18 months, BMC has begun helping clients build and manage more than 150 cloud-based data centres. The company's customers include Concur Technologies and Rackspace Hosting.

BMC also has introduced cloud products. In May, it rolled out BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management, software for building and operating cloud-based data centres. The Houston-based company also plans to introduce more cloud-related IT products.

The Campbell Union School District of California has completed the implementation of environmentally friendly thin client terminal stations at the Monroe Middle School (MMS), writes The Journal.

With help from Aqua Connect, which provided the desktop virtualisation software, and 10ZiG, which supplied the thin client stations, MMS now has a heat and energy-efficient network of 20 Macintosh terminal stations at various locations throughout the school facility.

With thin client workstations, multiple users have access to the operating system and software on a server without each user requiring a CPU. This reportedly reduces energy consumption substantially, with estimates ranging from 50% to 90%.